Observations of Stresses and Strains in a Granular Material

Danuta Lesniewska, Ph.D.1; and David Muir Wood, Ph.D.2

Abstract: The use of glass ballotini as a granular material provides the opportunity to simultaneously study internal stress fields and
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internal fields of deformation as a sample is submitted to boundary perturbations. Digital image correlation makes use of the visible fabric
of the material to deduce a field of displacements from one digital photographic image to the next. If the glass granules are immersed in
a fluid having the same refractive index, then observation with polarized light exploits the photoelastic properties of the glass to reveal
information about the stresses. Again, comparison of digital photographs enables changes in stress conditions from one image to the next
to be discovered. Tests performed in a simple loading device which forces rotation of principal axes in parts of the granular mass are
presented to demonstrate the unique potential of this dual experimental configuration.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲EM.1943-7889.0000015
CE Database subject headings: Granular materials; Stress; Strain; Deformation; Digital techniques; Imaging techniques;
Configuration.

Introduction ments in granular materials—with certain constraints. Radio-

The validation of constitutive models of soil behavior has usually
been achieved through the simulation of laboratory tests 共such as
triaxial tests兲 which are interpreted as single element tests on
more or less uniform samples. The possibilities for such ideal
element tests are limited and the paths followed in any geotech-
nical prototype application will certainly explore regions of stress
and strain space which are inaccessible in the laboratory tests. In
fact, radiographic studies 共Desrues et al. 1996兲 have revealed
complex patterns of density variation within triaxial tests on sand
so that even in this familiar configuration the sample should be
seen as a “system” rather than a single element.
Validation of constitutive models in the context of reproducing
the behavior of geotechnical boundary value problems has usually
no choice but to work at the system level and attempt to predict
integrated quantities such as overall boundary loads and
displacements—there is little possibility of making comparisons
against the local behavior of the soil inside the geotechnical sys-
tem. Practically, this may not be a problem but there are some
hypotheses concerning the behavior of soils which can only be
tested with local knowledge of stresses and strains.
One of the techniques available for discovering information
about the stress state within a “soil” model makes use of the
photoelastic properties of certain transparent materials as de-
scribed in the next section.
It is less problematic to obtain information about displace-
1
Associate Professor, Institute of Hydroengineering, Polish Academy
of Sciences, ul. Koscierska 7, 80-328 Gdansk, Poland 共corresponding
author兲. E-mail: d.lesniewska@ibwpan.gda.pl
2
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Bristol, Queen’s
Building, Univ. Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, U.K. E-mail: d.muir-wood@
bristol.ac.uk
Note. This manuscript was submitted on April 19, 2008; approved on
December 10, 2008; published online on March 6, 2009. Discussion pe-
riod open until February 1, 2010; separate discussions must be submitted
for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Engineering
Mechanics, Vol. 135, No. 9, September 1, 2009. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-
9399/2009/9-1038–1054/$25.00.
graphic techniques now provide much information about internal
structure of geomaterials 共Desrues et al. 2006兲. The stereophoto-
grammetric method 共Desrues and Viggiani 2004兲 pioneered by
Butterfield et al. 共1970兲 provided fields of displacement but could
not easily be automated. Now, however, the wide availability of
digital photography makes it easy to obtain digital images of high
quality. Images of the sand fabric seen through the containing
glass side of a test tank for plane models provide sufficiently
varied detail to be used with image analysis software so that
successive pictures can be compared automatically to calculate
the field of displacements and thence strains within the sand 关a
process known variously as digital image correlation 共DIC兲 or
particle image velocimetry 共PIV兲: Adrian 1991; White and Take
2002; White et al. 2003, 2005兴.
We explore here a new experimental procedure of investigat-
ing the behavior of granular materials, combining the classical
photoelastic technique with digital photography and subsequent
PIV. Some preliminary experiments are reported in which glass
ballotini of diameter around 1 mm have been placed in a simple
rig and subjected to various loading and boundary displacement
histories. Examples are given of observed stress and strain incre-
ment fields and certain relations deduced between them.
Photoelastic Technique for Granular Materials
Any transparent material, such as glass or certain polymers, when
stressed, becomes birefringent to some extent, depending on its
optical sensitivity. When viewed in a dark field of circularly po-
larized light, we can observe the transmission through a continu-
ous model of the internal stresses generated by forces imposed on
the boundaries. This property has been extensively used in the
past, mainly in structural engineering models, to visualize elastic
stress distributions in small scale continuous models of complete
structures 共for example, dams, bridges etc.兲 or structural compo-
nents in polarized light. However, the same technique can be used
to observe the transmission of forces within a sample of a granu-
lar material made of transparent particles 共for example, Dantu
1957; Wakabayashi 1957; Drescher and De Josselin de Jong

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J. Eng. Mech., 2009, 135(9): 1038-1054

 1972; Drescher 1976; Dyer 1985; Allersma 1987; Dyer 1985;
Geng et al. 2001兲. If the number of particles is large enough
共which is to say that the size of the particles is sufficiently small
with respect to the typical dimensions of the test apparatus兲 then
the observed distribution of forces has been interpreted to reveal
the stress field within the granular material.
A mass of particles, even if each single one is transparent to
light, is generally entirely opaque because of the reflection and
diffraction of light at the particle faces. It is well known from the
principles of optics that this opacity can be removed by immers-
ing the grains in a liquid having the same refractive index as the
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particles—light traversing the granular mass is not then deflected
at the boundaries between particles and liquid and the sample of
granular material becomes transparent. Adopting this principle,
Dantu 共1957兲, Wakabayashi 共1957兲, Drescher 共1976兲, Allersma
共1987兲, and Dyer 共1985兲 共among others兲 extended the use of
the photoelastic technique to granular materials. All of them used
crushed glass particles in their tests. By direct observation of
photographs made in circularly polarized light, they were able
to recognize characteristic light stripes, representing highly
loaded chains of crushed glass particles and concluded that
these stripes coincided, although irregularly, with principal stress
trajectories.
Displacement fields have been determined experimentally ei-
ther by directly tracing changes in the position of a number of
marked 共nontransparent兲 particles, placed in more or less regular
arrays at some distance from the face of the sample 共Allersma
1987; Dyer 1985兲 or by stereophotogrammetric measurement of
the position of opaque porcelain markers embedded randomly in
the crushed glass 共Drescher 1976兲. Characteristic dimensions of
the arrays of markers 共the distance between neighboring markers兲
were inevitably 共much兲 greater than the typical particle sizes 共for
example, Allersma used a grid of about 10 mm and crushed glass
with particle size about 3 mm兲. There is a question whether the
accuracy of these previous studies was sufficient to draw decisive
conclusions concerning the relation between principal strain in-
crement and stress axes that can be revisited in the future. Our
present intention is to present the new possibilities offered by
combining computer aided image analysis with classical photo-
elastic investigations of granular materials.
It has been reported by previous researchers that because of
the low optical sensitivity of glass, information concerning stress
conditions in a granular photoelastic medium made of glass par-
ticles only becomes visible once the stress level is reasonably
high. In a small laboratory model tested at single gravity and
containing a free surface, the stress level would be too low.
Drescher 共1976兲, using a sort of directional shear apparatus, was
able to reach an internal stress, sufficient to produce a visible
effect, by rotation of the enclosing plates by about 5°, implying a
shear strain of the order of 8%. Allersma 共1987兲 reports that the
external load applied to platens of his test box produced an aver-
age stress around 0.1 MPa and Dyer 共1985兲 used a load sufficient
to generate a stress of about 0.2 MPa. Both Allersma and Dyer
were studying large displacement problems 共shear box, cone pen-
etration, and reinforcement pullout兲.
PIV in Geomechanics
Particle image velocimetry or DIC 共Rechenmacher and Medina-
Cetina 2007兲 is a velocity-measuring procedure, originally devel-
oped for fluid mechanics 共Adrian 1991兲 and later, exploiting the
potential of digital photography, used for the analysis of displace-
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J. Eng. Mech., 2009, 135(9): 1038-1054
ments in tests on soil models 共White et al. 2003, 2005兲. PIV
operates by tracking the spatial variations of brightness within an
image 共divided up into a mesh of PIV patches兲 by comparing
successive images. It thus provides an automated route to the
extraction of displacement data from sequences of digital images,
captured during model or element tests in plane strain conditions.
The principal constraints are thus that there must be a transparent
boundary through which the granular material can be observed—
for example, a glass or Perspex containing wall—and that the
granular material should have sufficient texture that the image
analysis software can reliably detect and identify from one pho-
tograph to the next.
We have used the GeoPIV software, developed by White and
Take 共2002兲 to analyze the tests presented in this paper. Accord-
ing to White et al. 共2003兲, the precision of PIV is a strong func-
tion of the size of the patch which is to be compared from image
to image and is also influenced by image content. If the size of the
patch is too small then the amount of information contained may
be insufficient for the software to recognize with confidence the
displaced patch, and false values of displacement may emerge.
The second quantity which must be chosen is the grid spacing to
be used for successive displacement estimates within each image.
Calculation of strains requires differentiation of displacement
information—a finer grid implies greater detail but also greater
probability of erratic values. So the selection of an optimum patch
size in the PIV analysis requires two conflicting interests to be
balanced—larger patches offer improved precision, whereas
smaller patches allow the image to contain a greater number of
measurement points, revealing detail in areas of high strain gra-
dient. A compromise that appears to provide the best solution for
these two problems is to use relatively big, but overlapping
patches.
We have nevertheless explored the use of different patch sizes
in our analyses. Most of the analyses used overlapping square
patches of L = 32 and L = 64 pixels, placed at a spacing of 16 and
8 pixels, respectively 共thus somewhat less than the patch size兲.
共However, in some tests satisfactory strain fields could not be
obtained with the use of the smaller spacings because of rounding
errors in very small incremental displacements.兲 White et al.
共2003兲 proposed an empirical formula for an upper bound on the
PIV precision error ␳pixel as a function of patch size L. According
to this formula the precision of our displacement PIV analysis
with L = 32 pixels was about 2 ⫻ 10−4 maximum expected error
共in pixels兲, equivalent to ⬃1.5⫻ 10−5-mm displacement.
The image analysis program obviously works best when the
movements between images are not so large that the geometry
changes in the fabric make matching of patches difficult. The user
needs to use some trial and error to find the best mesh of patches
and the best area to be studied in terms both of the success of the
PIV interpretation and of the geomechanical information that can
be extracted.
Experimental Configuration and Materials
Photoelastic and Photographic Procedures
A standard photoelastic polariscope set 共Drescher 1976; Allersma
1987; Dyer 1985; Geng et al. 2001兲 has been used for the pur-
poses of observation of stress fields. Two monochromatic sodium
lamps have been used with a diffuser to encourage uniformity of
polarized light. The light passes through a standard circular po-
lariscope set 共Fig. 1兲 consisting of a polarizer and a quarter wave

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Fig. 1. Schematic view of the experimental setup—standard polari-
scope with monochromatic light supplemented by additional unpolar-
ized white light source
plate, then through the sample and then through a second quarter
wave plate and polarizer 共analyzer兲 with its axis at 90° to the first
one. An additional lamp which provides a source of white non-
polarized light is placed at the side of the model 共in order not to
disturb the field of view of the sodium lamp兲 and directed almost
parallel to it by means of a mirror to illuminate the model for the
PIV photographs 共Fig. 1兲. Inevitably, such a configuration gives a
slightly nonuniform illumination across the width of the model
but the nonuniformity is the same for each picture and does not
unduly influence the application of the PIV 共the mirror helps to
improve uniformity of sample illumination兲. The additional lamp
used for the PIV imagery has to give a sufficiently strong light
to produce a clear image of the fabric of the granular material:
a 500-kW electric bulb was used. All photographs have to be
made with a fixed position for the digital camera so, when col-
lecting data for PIV, the sample is illuminated by nonpolarized
light, but the photographs are taken through the polariscope ana-
lyzer set.
Evidently the photoelastic images 共taken in circularly polar-
ized light兲 do themselves record a lot of fabric in the granular
material and it would be tempting to use a single set of such
Fig. 2. Test box geometry and loading scheme for the “retaining wall” model 共active case兲
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J. Eng. Mech., 2009, 135(9): 1038-1054
images for both stress and displacement information. Within areas
of small stress change one might indeed use these same images
for the PIV determination of displacements and strains. However,
the PIV method operates by tracking the spatial variations of
brightness within an image 共divided up into a mesh of PIV
patches兲 and any significant change in brightness, caused by an
intended variation of stress state, can upset the patch matching
process and lead to the calculation of false displacements. This
problem is avoided by using two different forms of illumination
of the model and a pair of digital photographs is taken at each
stage of the test—one using polarized and one using nonpolarized
light, respectively, for extraction of information concerning
stresses and displacements. A Sony Digital Still Camera DSC-
F717 was employed to record the course of the tests, using an
image size of 2 , 560⫻ 1 , 920 pixels. The optimum distance be-
tween the digital camera and the test box was chosen to ensure
that the part of the image intended for PIV analysis had resolution
sufficient to give good quality displacement fields 共White and
Take 2002兲. The camera covered different areas of the test box
depending on its location 共Fig. 7兲.
Test Box
The experiments have been performed in a glass sided box with
dimensions shown in Fig. 2, giving a thickness of the plane strain
model of 20 mm. Various loading configurations can be inserted
in the box. The glass sides are 20 mm thick and have to sustain
the lateral pressures from the granular material. The particular
configuration used here is shown in Fig. 2: a vertical “wall” some
180 mm high is supported at two points by rods which are able to
slide horizontally through the side of the box, with the amount of
sliding being controlled by a external scaled screw. The intention
has been to devise a configuration which is mechanically rather
simple but which provides some encouragement for the rotation
of principal axes of stress and strain. There is the possibility that
friction between the granular material and the glass plate may
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Fig. 3. Starlitebeads 1000: 共a兲 particles; 共b兲 particle-size distribution

have an influence on the uniformity of displacements through the Sample Preparation

thickness of the box but the kinematic constraint provided by the
The glass granules are placed in a hopper which has a length
loading configuration should make this effect small.
equal to the length of the required model 共Fig. 4兲. The base of
the hopper is opened and the granules rain more or less uniformly
Granular Material over the entire length of the model. Pouring is stopped when
the surface of the layer of granules is near the top of the wall.
The experiments have been performed using Starlite safety
The surface is then leveled off. Simple calculations of the mass
spheres as the granular medium 关Fig. 3共a兲兴. These glass ballotini
of granular material used and the dimensions of the granular
have a narrow grading between about 0.8 and 1 mm 关Fig. 3共b兲兴
body as placed suggest that an average void ratio of about 0.51
and have a refractive index of about 1.54. Clove oil has been
共volume fraction of 0.66兲 is obtained with a slight decrease in
chosen as the liquid with a comparable refractive index: the sup-
density with height of the model because of the changing distance
pliers quote a value of 1.533. Unfortunately, clove oil is quite
of fall.
reactive with certain metals and it is necessary, for example, to
The sample is then saturated with clove oil by pouring the oil
avoid contact with brass. 共Though the exotic aroma gives a cer-
slowly into the part of the test box to the right of the wall so that
tain pleasure to the experiments.兲 Although the refractive indices
it can then seep under the wall and fill the voids between the
of the glass granules and the clove oil are closely matched so that
particles flowing up from the base of the specimen. It is necessary
the saturated sample appears transparent, there is enough remain-
to saturate from the bottom to avoid as far as possible trapping air
ing texture to the material to permit the PIV technique to be used
to track movements.

Fig. 4. Forming granular sample by pluviation
Fig. 5. Test box shown during filling of the sample with clove oil.
The lower part of the sample is saturated and thus appears transparent
to light. The upper part shows the opaque nature of the glass ballotini
before saturation. The sodium lamps, used for photoelastic analysis,
are seen behind the box.

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J. Eng. Mech., 2009, 135(9): 1038-1054


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Fig. 6. Loading block placed on top of the test tank: 共1兲 right hand
loading segment with comb blades; 共2兲 the upper part of the test box,
connected to the loading system; 共3兲 one of hydraulic cylinders; 共4兲
model “wall”; and 共5兲 granular sample
in the sample. In fact, the pore size, liquid viscosity, and surface
tension properties are such that saturation proceeds rather effec-
tively, slowly but steadily. The matching of the refractive indices
means that as the material becomes saturated it becomes
transparent—it appears almost as though the oil is “dissolving”
the particles 共Fig. 5兲.
Loading
The surface loading is provided by an articulated “footing”
formed of five segments each of which is able to move separately
共Figs. 2 and 6兲 but which are connected to a common pressure
source so that, even if the individual sections of the footing settle,
the pressure on each can be maintained. The right hand segment
共1兲, Fig. 6, has a series of comb blades which match with comple-
mentary comb blades at the top of the wall. A flexible plastic strip
is inserted up the face of the wall at the time of pouring and then
placed over the surface of the granular material to prevent the
particles from moving into the slots of the combs. A copper strip
was also placed under the right hand of two footings or over the
whole surface of the sample to encourage some continuity of
movement and avoid the early formation of a deformation mecha-
nism concentrated in the top corner of the model.
Once the granular sample has been saturated with oil and
the five footing segments are in place, a loading block is placed
on top of and fixed to the test tank 共Fig. 6兲. This block contains
Table 1. Test 1—Applied Pressure Increments and Wall Displacements
Number of Applied load
load/displacement increment
Test symbol step 共MPa兲
060608 L1 0.2
L2 0.2
L3 0.2
L4 0.2
L5 0.2
L6 0.2
D1 0 1.2
L7 0.2
L8 0.2
D2 0 1.6
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J. Eng. Mech., 2009, 135(9): 1038-1054
five hydraulic cylinders which can be simultaneously pressurized
with a hand operated hydraulic pump. The range of pressures
which can be applied by the loading system is 0–4.0 MPa. Typi-
cal tests have consisted of stages of loading of this pressure block
in steps of 0.2–1.6 MPa. At certain pressures, the wall is permit-
ted to move away from the granular material by turning the sup-
port screw. The mechanism used does not provide any direct
connection between the support rods and the wall—releasing the
support rods merely gives the wall an opportunity to move out-
wards. In practice, there appears to have been a little restraint
at the base of the wall so that some modest rotation of the wall
occurred. As oil can flow out freely from the granular sample
during loading 共through the thin gaps between the loading
segments兲, it is accepted that the tests are performed in drained
conditions.
Typical Model Test Results
Two model tests are used as a source of data presented in this
paper, Test 1 共or 060608兲 and Test 2 共or 070424兲. Both tests
consisted of loading stages 共when external pressure was applied
to the granular sample in steps and the model wall was held in
position by the supporting screw兲 and displacement stages 共when
external pressure was kept constant, and the supporting screw was
released and the model wall permitted to move away from the
sample兲. Wall displacements were also applied in steps, by turn-
ing the supporting screw, noting that one full turn of the screw
was equivalent to 1.25 mm. The pressure and displacement steps
applied in Test 1 and Test 2 are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.
The maximum stress level reached 共1.6 MPa兲 is the same in both
tests. The same value of stress increments 共0.2 MPa兲 was em-
ployed. The main difference between the two tests was the mag-
nitude of the displacement increments.
In Test 1 two big displacement steps, each corresponding to
one full turn of the screw, were applied—the first one after reach-
ing a stress level 1.2 MPa and the second one after reaching 1.6
MPa. The total wall displacement was then 2.5 mm. It was found,
however, that such a large displacement increment obscured the
detection of the moment of the development of a deformation
mechanism in the granular sample—after 1.25-mm displacement
the mechanism was already substantially developed. Thus, in Test
2, much smaller displacement steps of 1/20 of the full screw
rotation 共⬃0.0625 mm兲 were used, and all were applied at the
maximum stress level 共1.6 MPa兲. The total wall displacement in
Test 2 was 1.25 mm.
Total applied Applied wall Total applied
load displacement increment wall displacement
共MPa兲 共mm兲 共mm兲
0.2 0 0
0.4 0 0
0.6 0 0
0.8 0 0
1.0 0 0
1.2 0 0
1.25
(1 screw rotation) 1.25
1.4 0 1.25
1.6 0 1.25
1.25 2.50
 Table 2. Test 2—Applied Pressure Increments and Wall Displacements
Number of Applied load Total applied Applied wall Total applied
load/displacement increment load displacement increment wall displacement
Test symbol step 共MPa兲 共MPa兲 共mm兲 共mm兲
070424 L1 0.2 0.2 0 0
L2 0.2 0.4 0 0
L3 0.2 0.6 0 0
L4 0.2 0.8 0 0
L5 0.2 1.0 0 0
L6 0.2 1.2 0 0
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L7 0.2 1.4 0 0
L8 0.2 1.6 0 0
0.0625
D1 0 1.6 (1/20 of screw rotation) 0.0625
D2 0 1.6 0.0625 0.1250
D3 0 1.6 0.0625 0.1875
D4 0 1.6 0.0625 0.2500
D5 0 1.6 0.0625 0.3125
D6 0 1.6 0.0625 0.3750
D7 0 1.6 0.0625 0.4375
D8 0 1.6 0.0625 0.5000
D9 0 1.6 0.0625 0.5625
D10 0 1.6 0.0625 0.6250
D11 0 1.6 0.0625 0.6875
D12 0 1.6 0.0625 0.7500
D13 0 1.6 0.0625 0.8125
D14 0 1.6 0.0625 0.8750
D15 0 1.6 0.0625 0.9375
D16 0 1.6 0.0625 1.0000
D17 0 1.6 0.0625 1.0625
D18 0 1.6 0.0625 1.1250
D19 0 1.6 0.0625 1.1875
D20 0 1.6 0.0625 1.2500

The rectangle marked on the test box in Fig. 7共a兲 shows the
area covered by the camera during Test 1; a similar rectangle in
Fig. 7共c兲 shows the corresponding area for Test 2. Resolutions of
about 8 pixels per 1 mm and 13 pixels per 1 mm were obtained in
Test 1 and Test 2, respectively. Parts of the digital photographs
used to prepare particular figures presented in this paper are out-
lined by the relevant rectangles in Figs. 7共b and d兲 for Test 1 and
Test 2, respectively.
Displacement and Strain Analysis by PIV
Convergence Study
The displacement and strain fields have been determined with the
help of image processing software, using PIV as implemented in
the program GeoPIV 共White and Take 2002兲, comparing pairs of
successive photographs to produce incremental values of dis-
placements and strains.
The first step in the PIV analysis is to divide the digital image
into square patches of pixels, forming a regular mesh. Since the
precision of PIV is a function of the patch size and the grid
spacing, an initial study of convergence and stability was per-
formed using different patch sizes and different grid spacing to
determine the optimum mesh refinement for determination of dis-
placement and strain fields. This study was performed on two
images taken after steps D2 and L8 of Test 1, with the sample
illuminated with unpolarized light 关Figs. 17共d and e兲兴. Five
meshes were checked, as listed in Table 3. It was found that the
quality of digital images taken during Test 1 made it impossible to
use patches of dimension smaller than 64 pixels. Improved mesh
refinement was achieved by decreasing the mesh spacing with a
minimum spacing of 8 pixels which produces a very fine mesh of
spacing roughly equal to the average grain diameter. The resulting
fields of displacement, multiplied by 10, are shown in Fig. 8.
Shear and volumetric strain distributions calculated by GeoPIV
from the displacement fields shown in Fig. 8 are presented in
Figs. 9 and 10. The identical ranges of shear 共0–15%兲 and volu-
metric strains 共⫺4, 4%兲 are plotted for all the meshes to make
comparison of the results easier.
All the meshes show a concentration of displacement in a
somewhat wedge-shaped region beside the wall 共Fig. 8兲. Increas-
ing mesh refinement reveals 共in shear and volumetric strain maps,
Figs. 9 and 10兲 clear division into several zones, each undergoing
close to rigid body movement. This pattern can be seen in dis-
placements already with Mesh M2. Mesh M3 reveals distinct
boundaries between “rigid” zones, especially in the area adjacent
to the model wall, but no details of deformation in the area far
from the wall. Mesh M4 is fine enough to show the structure of
the displacement and strain field in the areas of small displace-
ments. More detail of this area is visible with Mesh M5 共for

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Fig. 7. 共a and c兲 Areas covered by digital camera and 关共b兲 and 共d兲兴 parts of the images selected for analysis and presentation: 共a and b兲—during
Test 1; 共c and d兲—during Test 2

example, some shear straining is visible toward the left side of

the test box, away from the wall, see also Fig. 13, bottom row兲.
Figs. 9 and 10 show strong localization of strains. The overall
deformation mechanism defined by these shear bands is clearly a
combination of at least two simpler ones 共one could be called the
active Coulomb wedge兲.
Fig. 9 shows that the general structure of the pattern of shear
bands does not depend significantly on the refinement of the mesh
of patches—it seems that even the very rough Mesh M1 is able to
reveal correctly the basic features of the deformation mechanism.
However, Mesh M1 is not able to provide an adequate picture of
the volumetric strains 共Fig. 10兲. Nevertheless, those details of the
deformation mechanism that Mesh M1 does reveal are clearly
consistent with the results obtained using the finer meshes.
The advantage of using finer meshes is obvious, however.
They permit both the study of the overall deformation mechanism
and also inspection of conditions within the shear bands them-

Table 3. Characteristics of Meshes Used in PIV Analysis of Test 1

Patch size Mesh spacing
Mesh 共in pixels兲 共in pixels兲 Comments
M1 100⫻ 100 100 Adjoining patches
M2 64⫻ 64 64 Adjoining patches
M3 64⫻ 64 32 Overlapping patches
M4 64⫻ 64 16 Overlapping patches
M5 64⫻ 64 8 Overlapping patches Fig. 8. Displacement fields obtained for different mesh refinement

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Fig. 9. Shear strains obtained for different mesh refinement Fig. 10. Volumetric strains obtained for different mesh refinement

selves. Thus it can be seen from Fig. 9, Mesh M3, Mesh M4, and
Mesh M5, that “macro” shear bands possess discrete and regular
was very wide: with extreme local shear strains up to about 30%
internal structure.
for example 共Mesh 5兲, and extreme local volumetric strains up to
The highest shear strain values 共the highest local value is
about ⫾5%. Local strain spikes tend to dominate the strain
about 30%兲 共Fig. 9, Mesh M5兲 共Fig. 11兲 appear along a narrow
plots—as a result the large areas of the model where the strains
curvilinear wedge 共aaa, Fig. 11兲, but a larger wedge, approxi-
are varying but with moderate or small magnitude are underrep-
mately limited by a straight line, is also very visible 共cc兲, though
resented in the graphs and their details blurred. Specifying a
the shear strains developed along its edge are much smaller 共the
highest local value is about 7%兲. A faint trace of a wedge devel-
oping in the area to the left, far from the model wall, can also be
seen.
Volumetric strains 共Fig. 10, Mesh M5兲 共Fig. 12兲 are generally
concentrated along the same macrolines of strain localization but
pick out the curvilinear mechanism 共aaa兲 preferentially 共the high-
est local value is about ⫺4%兲 which is a consequence of the
nonlinear and probably nonmonotonic relationship between de-
velopment of volumetric and shear strain. In addition, a “micro”
mechanism of developing volumetric strains appears which is not
evident in the pattern of shear strains. A series of parallel micro-
volumetric lines, inclined at a certain angle to the macroshear
band, can be detected 共Fig. 10, Mesh M3, Mesh M4, and Mesh
M5兲. The characteristic feature of these microbands is that they
show alternately contraction 共red兲 and expansion 共dark blue兲. The
development of microstrain mechanisms and regular patterning in
granular materials is evidently something that can be studied fur-
ther using the combination of photoelastic observations and PIV
analysis.

Choice of Strain Plotting Intervals: Micromechanisms

It was found that during Test 1 and Test 2, the strains developed
in a highly nonuniform way so that the ranges of strains detected Fig. 11. Features of shear strain plot 共Test 1: D2-L8 Mesh M5兲

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Fig. 12. Features of volumetric strain plot 共Test 1: D2-L8 Mesh M5兲
lower range of strain magnitudes for plotting allows us to see
what is happening within those areas, while the contour plotting
“saturates” in the regions of intense straining.
Figs. 13 and 14 show how the strain maps depend on the range
of the strains plotted. The overall picture is always the same.
Narrowing the range of strains confirms that the deformation of
the granular sample occurs mostly within the “active Coulomb
wedge” area, along a number of well-defined discrete shear
bands. However, it is also clear that there is a weaker mechanism
developing across to the left boundary of the model.
Each pair of images in Figs. 13 and 14 represents the first and
the second wall displacements of Test 1. The comparison suggests
that increasing wall displacement causes greater concentration of
strains along the main shear bands. The first column of Figs. 13
and 14 compared with the second clearly shows more diffused
deformation. It may be recalled that the historic radiographic
studies 关such as those which fed the observations accumulated
by Muir Wood 共2002兲 or those studied by Lesniewska and
Mroz 共2000兲兴 could only show the cumulative density changes
that had occurred in the sand which tended to smear out some of
the detail of the pattern which had evolved during a test and
certainly made it difficult to pick out the incremental mechanism
or patterns.
Figs. 12 and 15 have been developed by studying the features
that are apparent in the detailed plotting of volumetric strains in
Figs. 10 and 14. It is clear that there is a lot of structure within the
volumetric strains that is not simply an artifact of the numerical
image analysis. Thus, Fig. 12 shows a suggestion that there might
be two sets of features in the lower part of the volumetric strain
plot having rather regular inclinations of 16 and 72° to the
horizontal—an enclosed angle of 56°. Similarly, Fig. 15 extracts
more detail from an enlargement of the volumetric strain infor-
mation plotted in Fig. 14. There is clear evidence of a rather
regular spacing of the linear features of larger volumetric dilation.
The spacing is of the order of 2 mm 共which is also about 2
particle diameters兲. These observations hint at internal structure to
the dilation bands which is of a scale smaller than the thickness of
such bands when observed radiographically, which is usually re-
ported to be of the order of 10–20 particle diameters 共e.g., Roscoe
1970; Muir Wood 2002兲, though smaller thicknesses are antici-
pated for nearly single-sized spherical materials.
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Stress Field Analysis and Comparison of Stress
and Deformation Fields
Computation of Stress Increment Information
Figs. 16共a and b兲 show the original photoelastic pictures of Test 1,
corresponding to load step L6 and displacement step D1, respec-
tively 共Table 1兲. Figs. 16共d and e兲 show the same area 关Fig. 7共b兲兴
after load step L8 and displacement step D2. All four images
present cumulative stress fields, including the contribution not
only of the preceding load and displacement steps, but also of any
initial internal stresses in the glass sides of the test box.
The images shown in Figs. 16共a, b, d, and e兲 do indeed contain
some brighter and darker areas but these are not well defined and
are hardly recognizable to the naked eye. Digital photography
permits arithmetic operations to be performed on the images
which are then found to reveal much more information concern-
ing the stresses than can be obtained with conventional photoelas-
tic photography 共e.g., Geng et al. 2001兲. Thus, Fig. 16共c兲 is a
subtraction of the pair of consecutive images Figs. 16共b and a兲
and reveals the field of stress increments caused by the first dis-
placement D1. Similarly, Fig. 16共f兲 shows the difference between
Figs. 16共e and d兲—the stress increment created by the second
displacement D2. 关A similar subtraction of images taken with the
sample illuminated with unpolarised light 共Fig. 17兲 shows almost
no discernible pattern, supporting our contention that the images
of the granular material illuminated by polarized light are able to
provide information on the incremental stress field.兴
The idea of arithmetic operations on photoelastic images is not
new: Geng et al. 共2001兲 use subtraction of images of “sand” piles
made of two-dimensional photoelastic discs to isolate the re-
sponse to a point force from the combined response to gravity and
a point force and adds resulting images to average the “stresses”:
the force chains revealed in individual images are, as expected,
quite diverse. The process of looking at a mass of particles under
polarized light as in our experiments is an equivalent summation
process. We know from discrete element modeling 共DEM兲 work
that the force chains in different sections orthogonal to the direc-
tion of zero strain in our experiment will be quite different so
that our eventual image is some sort of average which we con-
veniently interpret as a continuum observation. The “stress”
changes associated with the small displacement increments ap-
plied in the present test program are probably small by compari-
son with the stress differences that already exist through the
section of the model. Subtracting photoelastic images provides an
additional way of presenting and analyzing photoelastic stress
pictures.
The picture of change in stress state deduced from subtraction
of two photoelastic images could be influenced by the material
displacements accompanying the stress change and anything else
happening between the two photographs. Even for large displace-
ments a subtracted photoelastic image would contain information
on stress state change; however it is difficult to read. Our discus-
sion of test results is based on pairs of subtracted photoelastic
images, obtained for wall displacements much smaller than one
grain diameter 共1/10 or 1/20兲. Figs. 16共c and f兲 are the only
exception—they were obtained for wall displacements close to
grain diameter兲. Even for wall displacements of the order of
one grain diameter, the range of displacements for individual
grains placed behind the wall is much smaller 共often less than one
pixel兲. We can assume that the subtracted images represent
changes of stress 共force兲 field within the granular sample with
sufficient accuracy.
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Fig. 13. Test 1: maps of shear strains created within the granular sample by the first and the second wall displacement, four ranges of strains
plotted

We can extract two things from the original and subtracted
photoelastic images. On the one hand, we can see that certain
areas of the image are brighter than others, indicating that these
are areas where the stress level is higher. On the other hand, we
can discover some detail of the stress state within different re-
gions of the both kinds of photoelastic images.
Without knowing the detailed structure of deformation it is
not possible to compare properly the stress and strain fields. The
incremental photoelastic stress field obtained by subtraction of
original photoelastic images is built from the discrete change of
stress state at the scale of the single grain, averaged through the
20 mm thickness of the model 共about 20 grains兲. Comparison
with PIV strains requires discretization of the digital image at a
scale close to grain diameter. Mesh 4 and Mesh 5 共Table 3兲
fulfilled this condition and have been used in further analysis of
Test 1.

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Fig. 14. Test 1: maps of volumetric strains created within the granular sample by the first and the second wall displacement, four ranges of strains
plotted

Macromechanism indicate places where no significant change of the mean stress

Fig. 18 presents the subtracted photoelastic image resulting from
the displacement increment D8 applied in Test 2. It shows a
wedge-shaped area of the sample, where the image brightness
increased after the displacement step 共a similar area observed for
Test 1 is shown in Figs. 16共c and f兲. The increased brightness
indicates higher stress change, hence the figure shows an elevated
internal stress region, induced within the granular sample by wall
displacement. Any dark areas visible in Figs. 18 and 16共c and f兲
level occurred. By inspecting the image in Fig. 18 in some close
detail and tracing smooth and continuous dark lines along the
lighter stripes within the elevated stress wedge 共according to the
suggestion of Drescher 1976兲, the linear features shown in the
lower part of Fig. 18 were found. These features were sketched
independently by the two writers using enlarged images from the
photoelastic observations; they were sketched before the strain
plots were inspected for similar features. The most distinct of

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Fig. 15. Test 1: D1-L6 features from Fig. 14 共volumetric strain range
⫺2, +2%兲
these features, which indicate no change in mean stress between
the images, are shown in the lower part of Fig. 18, superimposed
on the photographic image. Similar lines of unchanging stress can
be found for Test 1 关Figs. 16共c and f兲兴. They suggest in both cases
a combination of macroscopic and micro- 共or meso-兲 mechanism
information. The implication is that, although the general stresses
Fig. 16. Test 1: changes in the stress field created by two displacement steps—polarized light
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J. Eng. Mech., 2009, 135(9): 1038-1054
are falling slightly behind the wall as it is allowed to move out-
ward, there is quite subtle internal variation in the stresses at the
microlevel with some particles receiving increased stresses as a
result of redistribution from other particles. Such microlevel
stress variation must be related to the features that were recorded
from the fields of deformation 共Figs. 19 and 20: D8-D7, Figs. 13
and 14兲.
Figs. 19 and 20 show the stress increments compared with the
incremental shear and volumetric strains from the corresponding
stages of Test 2. The left column of both figures presents the
evolution of the stress increment field, caused by the displace-
ments applied to the model wall. The third wall displacement
共D3-D2兲 caused the greatest change in the stress field, as it was
accompanied by a slight uncontrolled rotation of the wall 共which
did not recur兲. At several stages during Test 2, no visible change
in the stress field was observed after applying a single displace-
ment step 共D7-D6 for example兲. Only after applying a further one
or two wall displacements was the observable deformation of
the sample obtained, usually accompanied by a certain drop in
external 共surface兲 pressure, which had then to be adjusted back
to the previous value. Some audible cracking often accompanied
the deformation. The whole deformation process corresponded
not to a continuous change, but rather to a series of switches from
one deformation state to another. Figs. 19 and 20 confirm this
“switching” mode.
The localized structures shown in Figs. 19 and 20 and formed
by the shear and volumetric strains are visibly related to the stress
pictures, but do not match them exactly 共however, they seem to
occur along the main “unchanging stress lines”兲. Superimposition
of the stress and strain pictures is required to show the geometri-
cal linkage more precisely. It can be seen from the figures that
both stress and strain images cover similar wedge shaped area of
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Fig. 17. Equivalent of Fig. 16, obtained for the sample illuminated by unpolarized light
the granular sample and that some of the most visible features of
the strain maps correspond well to the stresses. However, both the
stress and strain plots contain a lot of detail.
The line structures previously sketched on the stress increment
image 共Fig. 18兲 are compared with the volumetric and shear strain
distributions in Fig. 21 obtained for one selected displacement
step of Test 2, representing the most complex map of the stress
increment. It can be seen that the lines limiting the areas of el-
evated stress 共unchanging stress lines兲 also mark the locations of
Fig. 18. Test 2: changes in the stress field caused by the 8th displace-
ment step 共D8—D7兲
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the most concentrated shear and volumetric strains 共shear bands兲.
The local dilation could cause an increase of the mean stress level
in the adjacent, confined parts of the sample.
Micromechanism: Principal Directions of Strain
Increments and Stresses
The observations that have been discussed in previous paragraphs
have no analog in classical photoelastic analysis of soil mechanics
problems, as they would not be possible to make without modern
digital photography and computer image processing methods.
Historical photoelastic investigations of granular material behav-
ior were undertaken mainly to trace the relationship between prin-
cipal strain increment and stress directions and to verify in
this way the assumptions of some theoretical soil models and to
confirm the possibility of noncoaxiality in granular materials
共Dantu 1957; Wakabayashi 1957; Drescher 1976; Allersma 1987;
Dyer 1985兲. The digital image analysis of displacements has pro-
vided detail of strain fields that was not obtainable using discrete
markers.
While the photoelastic technique has been pursued by a small
disparate group of researchers over the past few decades, there
has been a tremendous surge of activity in computer-based DEM
which has confirmed the finding of Drescher and De Josselin
de Jong 共1972兲 of the existence of “force chains”—highly loaded
particles, forming bright rows within photoelastic images. Their
directions are interpreted as principal stress directions. The in-
terpretation of two-dimensional photoelastic and DEM studies
of optically sensitive discs is clear and images produced by
Majmudar and Behringer 共2005兲 and Zuriguel et al. 共2007兲 pro-
duce very nice images of such force chains. For a truly three-
dimensional granular medium such as ours, the photoelastic
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Fig. 19. Test 2: stress field and shear strains, p = 2.0 MPa, ⌬x ⬵ 6.25⫻ 10−2 mm

image represents an integration of bifrefringent effects through
many particles which will be individually loaded in very different
ways and with nonaligned force chains. At the applied stress lev-
els of the majority of our tests we have not seen such force chains
at the macroscale and yet there is some further internal structure
visible in the images.
Fig. 22共b兲 shows a small piece of original photoelastic image
taken during Test 2 after displacement step D8. This piece of
image is marked red in Fig. 22共a兲 to show its location in relation
to the model wall. It reveals a delicate clusterlike structure of
approximately parallel brighter and darker rows. 共The image is
probably most influenced by the layer of particles closest to the
glass wall of the experimental box.兲 These could be an equivalent
of the force chains previously found in crushed glass. 共It should
be remembered here that our average grain diameter is about
three times smaller than it was in case of the crushed glass

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Fig. 20. Test 2: stress field and volumetric strains, p = 2.0 MPa, ⌬x ⬵ 6.25⫻ 10−2 mm

grains.兲 Fig. 22共c兲 shows a field of stress increment for the same
area of the sample, induced by displacement D8 and obtained by
subtracting the two successive photoelastic images. It also con-
tains a lot of small chainlike objects. There is a general impres-
sion that their directions do not coincide with the directions of
microchains visible in Fig. 22共b兲 共at least in certain areas兲, how-
ever due to the rather discrete character of both pictures it is
difficult to make a reliable and objective comparison using simple
graphical means. In addition, some clusterlike structure of the
granular sample can be seen in nonpolarized light 关Fig. 22共d兲兴,
and again generally, the directions of some visible linear objects
seem not to fit to total 关Fig. 22共b兲兴 or incremental 关Fig. 22共c兲兴
“microforce chains.”
If we agree that incremental microforce chains represent prin-
cipal stress increment directions, an attempt could be made to
check how they compare with relevant incremental strain fields,

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Fig. 22. Force chains in micro scale 共Test 2, after displacement D8兲,
共a兲 location of a piece of the image, enlarged on 共b兲–共d兲; 共b兲 original
photoelastic image—total stress field; 共c兲 stress increment field; and
共d兲 view in nonpolarized light

Fig. 21. Test 2: displacement D8—D7—comparison of stress and

strain fields geometry

presented previously. Fig. 23 compares shear 关Fig. 23共c兲兴 and

volumetric 关Fig. 23共d兲兴 increments calculated for the enlarged
area marked red in Fig. 23共a兲 共the same as in Fig. 22兲. It is
noticeable that the stress increment field seems to be more uni-
form than the relevant strain fields—it contains localizations
共force chains兲 of much smaller scale than the faint shear strain
localizations present in Fig. 23共c兲 and more distinct volumetric
strain localizations in Fig. 23共d兲. The strain pictures present a
more blurred appearance—possibly because the mesh refinement
is insufficient to determine accurately the local principal strain
directions. Displacements in Test 2 were calculated using a mesh Fig. 23. Comparison of stress and strain increment fields in micro-
spacing equal to 16 pixels in comparison to grain diameter equal scale, 共a兲 location of a piece of the image, enlarged in 共b兲–共d兲; 共b兲
to about 13 pixels. The extraction of further microscopic detail stress increment field; 共c兲 shear strain increment field; and 共d兲 volu-
from these images is the subject of ongoing analysis. metric strain increment field within the piece

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 Conclusions
There are a number of benefits that are obtained from the experi-
mental procedures that have been explored in this paper.
Use of digital photography with polarized light 共photoelastic
technique兲 allows arithmetic operations to be performed on the
images 共particularly the subtraction of pairs of images兲, and thus
the revelation of incremental features of the stress fields which
are invisible to the naked eye. 关Hitherto, only changes visible to
the naked eye have been observed by Drescher 共1976兲 and Al-
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lersma 共1987兲 in individual images.兴 The initial stress field, in-
cluding internal stresses in the glass side of the test tank, can be
eliminated in this way. As a result, rounded glass grains 共which
produce less conspicuous changes of the stress field during pho-
toelastic tests兲 can be used, instead of highly angular crushed
glass grains as used in previous tests 共previous attempts to use
glass ballotini were unsuccessful, 关Drescher 1976, private com-
munication兲兴. As more rounded grains make more ordered granu-
lar assemblies, it is anticipated that any irregularities in the stress
and strain fields 共multiple shear bands for example兲, if they exist,
should be easier to detect than in the more chaotic fabric of
crushed glass. The arithmetic operations on digital images, taken
in polarized light, also permit direct comparison between incre-
mental fields of stress and strain—previously strain increments
have been compared only with cumulative stress field information
共Drescher 1976; Allersma 1987兲.
Use of digital photography in nonpolarized light with PIV
analysis gives the opportunity to obtain experimental displace-
ment and strain fields with unprecedented accuracy, which could
not be reached previously by other methods, such as measuring
displacements of a grid of discrete markers or stereophotogram-
metry. Using PIV it is possible to get displacements practically
over a grid spacing of the order of a single grain diameter.
The full test analysis, including incremental stress, displace-
ment and strain fields, can be performed for small deformations.
The smallest displacements applied during preliminary tests were
about 0.05 of the average grain diameter. This broadens the range
of application of the photoelastic technique for small displace-
ment problems 共for example, model retaining walls兲. Previously,
photoelasticity was believed to be suitable rather for large shear
strain problems such as penetration tests and shear devices 共Al-
lersma 1987兲.
Use of standard image processing and graphics software per-
mits precise comparison of strain and stress increment fields by
superimposing corresponding images.
Acknowledgments
This collaboration was made possible by a British Council Re-
search Partnership award which supported exchange visits be-
tween the two writers. The experiments conducted in Gdansk
could not have been performed without the valuable assistance
of Krzysztof Gaca and Dr. Marek Skodowski 共IFTR PAS in
Warsaw兲. The cheerful advice and guidance from David White
in connection with the use of the program GeoPIV is gratefully
acknowledged.
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